On the morning of March 10, the container ship Solong collided with an American tanker in the North Sea. British police subsequently arrested the 59-year-old captain of the Solong, whose name has not yet been disclosed. However, a Reuters report indicates that the captain is a Russian citizen.
The Solong, owned by the Hamburg-based international shipping company Ernst Russ, struck the anchored U.S. tanker Stena Immaculate, which was carrying jet fuel for the U.S. military. The impact caused fires to break out on both vessels, and as of March 12, the flames had not been fully extinguished. The crews were evacuated, but one Solong crew member remains missing. The captain is suspected of involuntary manslaughter due to negligence, as the missing crew member is presumed to have died as a result of the incident.
According to AIS (Automatic Identification System) tracking data, Solong was approaching Stena Immaculate at a speed of 16 knots (approximately 30 km/h) and made no visible attempts to avoid the collision. An American sailor aboard the tanker told CBS News that the container ship appeared “out of the blue.”
Initial reports following the accident suggested that Solong was carrying 15 containers of toxic sodium cyanide. However, Ernst Russ later denied this, stating: “There are four empty containers on board that previously held hazardous chemicals,” according to a statement obtained by The Insider.
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The chance of the captain and first mate just being drunk or really irresponsible (“the sea is big, what’s the worst that can happen?”) seems way more likely to me here than some nefarious plan. I just don’t see what would be gained from it.
The various cable cuts related to russian ships are definitely suspicious though. There the motive would be clear - it sends a threatening message to other countries about how vulnerable their infrastructure is, potentially making them less likely to stand up to russian aggression. And the cost to fix the cables is much higher than the cost of a low-medium chance the (old, leaking, close to decommissioning) ship gets impounded.